How tall are you? Well, I am 180 centimetres, and this is considered pretty tall.

But,
compared to some basket ball players we are just ________________! I can still remember that a few years
ago there was a player in the Russian team who was 239 centimeres tall, and any professional
team today will have a few players who are above 200 centimeters.
Modern _______________ is that the tallest recorded man of whom there is irrefutable evidence was
Robert Pershing Wadlow. This ____________ of a man was born in 1918 in Alton, Illnois, a normal,
healthy baby boy weighing 3.8 kilos. But at the age of two, after an operation, young Wadlow
began to grow at an abnormally _______________ rate. At the age of five he was 163 centimeres tall and at
the age of nine he was so strong and big that he was able to carry his father up the stairs of the
family home. On his 10th birthday he was 195 centimeres tall, and at the age of fourteen, 226
centimeres. Four years later, at the age of 18, Robert Wadlow stood 234 centimeres tall, and
still kept growing. By his 21st birthday he had reached a height of a little more than 272
centimeres and was the tallest man recorded in medical _________________. His weight was 222.7 kilos,
he wore 47 centimetre-long shoes and his hands measured 32.4 centimeres from the _____________ to
the top of the middle finger.
Wadlow’s rapid growth caused a problem with one foot on which he had to wear a heavy
metal support or brace. _________________, the brace caused an infection of his right _____________ which
eventually led to his __________________ in 1940, at the age of 22. If he had lived longer, he would probably
have reached or surpassed the height of 274 centimetres in a year’s time!

Announcer: … and I’ve got a letter here, and very nice,
too, from Evelyn Ogleby, from
Gateshead. “Hello, Happy New Year to you. As I don’t
have a fax or e-mail, Royal Mail is
my way of correspondence. Please, if
_______________, can we know a li…small amount
about
Fenella?”
Fenella: Oh, no!
Announcer: Are you _____________?
Fenella: Aren’t they nosy?
Announcer: Yeah, they are nosy. Eye colour?
Fenella: Greeny-brown.
Announcer: Hair colour?
Fenella: Sort … reddish, …ish.
Announcer: Shoe size?
Fenella: Umm, I’ve got shoe size 10, I think.
Announcer: Ooh, big girl. Height?
Fenella: Five foot five and a half.
Announcer: Hobbies? Um, um ... Go on.
Fenella: Hobbies, um, roller blading.
Announcer: Ooh, ______________ woman on skates.
Announcer: …there was something else…
Fenella: I just ...
Announcer: Pets?
Fenella: Um, not at the moment.
Announcer: Can you knit?
Fenella: A scarf, yes I can knit a sca….
Announcer: Education?
Fenella: Oh, very, very minimal.
Announcer: Terribly, terribly bright. You’re let off the
hook. I think we know enough now.
Fenella: Oh, thank God, is that _____________?
Announcer: Oh, joy, what’s your favourite drink?
Fenella: Oh, anything, I like, I’ll drink anything, I’m
afraid, absolutely anything.
Announcer: Fine. What a girl! Right, said Fred and
Deeply Dippy. I think we should dedicate
this to Fenella having survived the Spanish
Inquisition…